US assets needed to keep Insurance Company ENNIA afloat

WILLEMSTAD - The Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten and the Antillean insurer ENNIA ask legal recognition in the United States of the existing emergency regulations of ENNIA. Through recognition, there is access to American assets which is needed to keep the company afloat.

ENNIA, the largest insurance and pension company of Curacao and Sint Maarten, was placed under guardianship in early July. The Central Bank of Curacao and Sint Maarten (CBCS) feared the existence of the institution because the Iranian-American owner Hushang Ansary would increasingly deprive the insurer financially. For example, the CBCS had indications that it wanted to withdraw 100 million dollars from an American account from ENNIA at Merril Lynch.

With an American recognition of the emergency regulations, by using Chapter 15 in the US Bankruptcy Act, ENNIA can more easily dispose of its assets in the United States, including the Merrill Lynch accounts. In this way, the possibilities are being expanded to bring the restructuring of ENNIA to a favorable conclusion.

CBCS and ENNIA emphasize that it is not headed for bankruptcy of the insurer. "The aim of the restructuring is and remains to improve the solvency of ENNIA. In addition to the legal recognition of the existing emergency regulations in the United States, ENNIA will continue to exercise its activities normally and pensions will be paid out.

For more than two years, there have been major concerns about the solvency of ENNIA. In mid-2016, it became clear on the basis of a secret report from De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) that the now very old Ansary had been draining ENNIA financially for years under the eyes of the CBCS. The money was used, among other things, to settle the hurricane-destroying holiday park Mullet Bay. DNB described ENNIA in the report as financially and organizationally weak.